This week’s Time Capsule looks at a pair of deaths, Lockheed, a still, the PECO strike and Newt Gingrich.

100 years ago …

In the Friday, Feb. 19, 1915 edition of The Marietta Journal and Courier there was a story about the death of 17-year-old Josie Thompkins, a black woman who was stabbed in the neck and died before help could arrive. The coroner’s verdict was that her death was caused by her husband, Albert, in the back yard of the home of Mayes Frey in the new subdivision at the end of Waterman Street in Marietta. Mr. Thompkins was reported as having escaped after the killing and had not been seen since.

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A second story reported the death of Walter Mayfield at Dr. Nolan’s sanitarium from injuries sustained in a car accident. Mayfield had been to Kennesaw and was coming home to Marietta when his black chauffeur lost control of the car after “crossing the bridge north of Ben Stanley’s place on the Kennesaw road.” The car was said to have skidded and turned over twice, crushing Mayfield and causing internal injuries, while the chauffeur suffered three broken ribs.

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A third story reported that Judge N.A. Morris of Marietta filed a petition with the state railroad commission requesting that the fares for children under the age of five be waived and half the fare for children between five and 12 on the Atlanta Northern Railway, an interurban trolley line running between Atlanta and Marietta.

50 years ago …

In the Sunday, Feb. 14, 1965 Marietta Daily Journal reported that the Cobb County Police Department have made their first arrest in the drive to stop trash dumping along roads and in isolated areas of the county, which was mentioned in last week’s column. A Mableton man was charged with dumping trash in the roadway. County police were using walkie-talkies from concealed positions in an effort to catch more dumpers.

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Lockheed was reported in the Monday, Feb. 14, 1965 paper as having for the first time disclosed some of its design and development plans for the Air Force’s proposed C-5A, the world’s largest aircraft. Lockheed – Georgia Company officials said their design, among other innovations, offered a totally new concept of nose opening, providing straight-through loading at truck bed height; and a unique landing gear, with high floatation features, enabling the plane – despite its tremendous size – to land on short, rough fields.

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Sheriff’s deputies were reported in the Wednesday, Feb. 17, 1965 paper as having raided and destroyed a still that was one mile off of Pebblebrook Road on a dirt road. It was described as being able to produce about 500 gallons of moonshine every four days. A deputy received a tip about the still from an anonymous caller. In last week’s column, a tip about a large still on Allgood Road had been called in to the Journal and deputies found the remains of an operation in a vacant house and shed.

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In the Thursday, Feb. 18, 1965 paper reported that Joseph Ashkouti, the head of Production Engineering Company (PECO), was seeking a Georgia Bureau of Investigation probe into fires at the homes of three non-striking employees at his plant in Austell. The plant, which was first mentioned in a column two weeks ago, had some 625 employees walk off the job.

In a letter to the sheriffs of both Douglas and Paulding counties and the GBI, Ashkouti said “we do feel the repetition of the time pattern deserves a GBI investigation to ascertain whether there is any connection between these fires and the present strike conducted by the United Steel Workers Union against our plant.” Ashkouti’s letter also stated that the most recent fire was at the home of an employee in Dallas.

Ashkouti said that the employee was able to put out the fire before it completely destroyed his home. The man’s wife, however, was “so frightened at the attack on their home that she suffered a heart failure and was rushed to the hospital that evening.” Ashkouti said that the employee had reported to him that he had been threats by phone from some of the union strikers.

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Lockheed officials were reported in the Friday, Feb. 19, 1965 paper as having anticipated the reduction in the planned number of StarLifters announced by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, but emphasized that the Marietta facility would work harder now to receive the $2.2 billion contract to be let in July for the C-5A. One spokesman stated that if the plant did not receive the contract, it would suffer a “large” staff reduction by 1967.

McNamara, speaking before a congressional committee, announced a one-third cut to the production of the C-141 StarLifters at the Marietta plant. He said the cutback decision was made “because the C-5A would be a much better buy than additional C-141s.” He added, however, that the Air Force would continue procuring the C-141 aircraft through fiscal 1967.

20 years ago …

In the Tuesday, Feb. 14, 1995 paper it was reported that Newt Gingrich put to rest speculation he might jump into the 1996 presidential race by saying he can accomplish more as Speaker of the House of Representatives. Rep. Gingrich said he pondered a bid for the presidency over the weekend – after former Vice President Dan Quayle announced he was removing his name from the list of potential GOP candidates – but decided against attempting to move the leadership of his self-styled revolution to the White House. Gingrich said to 275 member audience of conservative business leaders at a breakfast at the Cobb Galleria Centre, sponsored by the Friends of Newt Gingrich – a Cobb-based grassroots organization, that in the past he had no immediate plans to be president, but Quayle’s abrupt withdrawal, coupled with the withdrawal of Jack Kemp earlier in the month, appeared to leave an opening for him to jump in the race.

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Damon Poirier is the Newsroom Administrator for the Marietta Daily Journal.

If you are interested in learning more about the stories that were presented in this week’s column, you can search the newspaper’s digitized microfilm archives online. NewsBank, which hosts the archives for the Marietta Daily Journal, charges a fee for retrieved articles and has various price packages available. If you have any trouble with your username, password or payment options, please contact NewsBank at mariettadaily@newsbank.com.

This week’s Time Capsule looks at moonshine, trash heaps, a strike, Cobb’s TV Channel 23 and a murder trial.

100 years ago …

In the Friday, Feb. 12, 1915 edition of The Marietta Journal and Courier there was the “Last Call and Final Great Reductions on Suits – Coats – Dresses” front page ad for The Hub Clothing Company on the Marietta Square. Among the deals being offered was 75-cents for any ladies hat in the store.

50 years ago …

In the Sunday, Feb. 7, 1965 Marietta Daily Journal it was reported that U.S. District Judge Lewis Morgan stated that the City of Marietta’s revocation of a citizen’s 1964 beer license was unconstitutional. The case concerned the Marietta City Council issuing a license and then revoking after a group of citizens protested the decision. Since the citizen filed the petition seeking to reverse the city’s decision, Marietta officials adopted a new beer licensing ordinance establishing standards for issuance, rejection and revocation of beer licenses.

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Sen. Richard B. Russell was reported in the Monday, Feb. 8, 1965 paper as “making good progress” in his recovery from throat surgery. The tracheotomy was performed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center to ease breathing congestion caused by a respiratory infection. Russell had entered the hospital suffering from bronchitis.

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Also that day, it was reported that the remains of a very large moonshine operation was discovered by the Sheriff’s Department at a vacated home on Allgood Road in Marietta after acting on a tip that had been anonymously reported to the Journal. Chief Deputy Harold Griggs said that he believed based on the remains that it had been a 500-gallon a day operation.

A 65-foot long shed looked to have been built recently on the property at the rear of the home. Sheriff Kermit Sanders said that inside the shed was where the vats and boiler had been contained. The spent mash was apparently piped from the shed to a swimming pool on the side of the house. Some of the mash was seen still floating on top of the water.

Truck tracks were visible in the gravel driveway leading up to the shed and the smell of moonshine lingered around the house and pool.

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A third story in that paper reported that the Journal was going to carry an editorial page column by famed writer Marguerite Higgins who was “perhaps the best known American woman correspondent in the world today.” Higgins’ globe-trotting had brought her in personal contact with most of the world’s major political figures and put her on the scene of many key news beats. Her work as a correspondent during the Korean War brought her a Pulitzer Prize, the top award in journalism.

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The Cobb County Police Department was reported in the Wednesday, Feb. 10, 1965 paper as having been instructed to strictly enforce state law on dumping trash on public or private land without permission. Chief Harris Burruss said he would even conceal men in the woods if necessary to stop the trash heaps in the county.

Officials felt the increased number of trash heaps cropping up in the county in recent years could be partly attributed to the charge for dumping garbage at the public dump. The county commission, however, in an effort to curb the problem, lifted the charge at the public dump.

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Federal mediators were reported in the Friday, Feb. 12, 1965 paper as having failed in their attempts to get Production Engineering Company (PECO) management and the steelworker union to come to a wage and working condition agreement. The strike at the Austell plant, mentioned in last week’s column, had entered its 12th day.

The meeting of the mediators and union lasted only 25 minutes with neither side willing to change its position. The union was asking for a 10-percent per hour wage increase and improved working conditions, including longer vacations, improved leaves of absence consideration and a lunch hour.

20 years ago …

In the Tuesday, Feb. 7, 1995 paper it was reported that after months of planning, Cobb County commissioners in one week would hit the television airwaves live on the county’s new government access channel, but the availability of airtime to the Cobb County School Board and other government entities was met with little enthusiasm. The 9:30 a.m. broadcast of the Board of Commissioner’s regular meeting was on Wometco Cable’s Channel 23 and marked the county’s first live television broadcast on the channel which was spearheaded by Cobb Commission Chairman Bill Byrne.

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Ronald Lopez “Good Thang” Freeman was reported in the Wednesday, Feb. 8, 1995 paper as having been spared the state’s electric chair for the third time and was instead sentenced to life in prison for the fourth time after the jury deadlocked in an 11-1 vote.

With the lone dissenter, Superior Court Judge Michael Stoddard was legally obligated to sentence Freeman to live in prison. Some of the jurors were reported as being visibly upset by their inability to agree on a death sentence, even asking Judge Stoddard to let them publicly address the victims’ families.

Freeman, then-23, was convicted of killing a 16-year-old Burger King employee in 1992. Freeman, who had avoided the death penalty twice before, was already serving three life sentences plus 60 years in prison for two other murders, three shootings and an armed robbery.

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Damon Poirier is the Newsroom Administrator for the Marietta Daily Journal.

If you are interested in learning more about the stories that were presented in this week’s column, you can search the newspaper’s digitized microfilm archives online. NewsBank, which hosts the archives for the Marietta Daily Journal, charges a fee for retrieved articles and has various price packages available. If you have any trouble with your username, password or payment options, please contact NewsBank at mariettadaily@newsbank.com.

In the Friday, Feb. 5, 1915 edition of The Marietta Journal and Courier there was a story about Mrs. Harry Dupre winning the cluster diamond ring mentioned in last week’s column that was being given away by the W.A. Florence Department Store. Frances Griffin was blindfolded and drew the ticket with Dupre’s lucky number.

50 years ago …

In the Sunday, Jan. 31, 1965 Marietta Daily Journal there was a story about the Larry Bell Center, which was Cobb County’s civic and recreation facility for almost 20 years, standing in ruins after being gutted by an early morning fire. The landmark, a product of World War II days, would have been 20 years old in November 1965.

The loss was estimated at over $400,000. The auditorium and stage section of the building were completely destroyed by fire with heavy smoke and water damage throughout the rest of the structure.

The Marietta Fire Department sounded a general alarm and about 40 men and six trucks battled the blaze for over three hours. Bystanders told the Journal that the fire shot flames 100 feet into the air.

This was the third major fire on the south side of Marietta during the past 30 days and all of the fires had been within about a half mile of each other.

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Also in that day’s paper, it was reported that two black men, one armed with a gun and the other armed with a switchblade knife, robbed a downtown Marietta grocery store. The men were quoted as saying to the manager as they left, “If you come out that door, we’ll kill you.” The robbers were said to have gotten away with $1,100 in the holdup.

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Some 625 workers were reported in the Monday, Feb. 1, 1965 paper as having walked off the job at the Production Engineering Company (PECO) in Austell over a wage dispute.

United Steel Worker Field Representative Ned Cocher stated that an offer by the company after six months of negotiating was rejected by a 12-1 secret ballot vote over the weekend. Cocher said most of the workers were paid $1.25 an hour and about 100 were paid $1.35 per hour.

Later in the week, in the Wednesday, Feb. 3, 1965 paper, it was reported that Supreme Court Judge Albert Henderson had ordered members of the United Steel Workers Union striking at PECO to be enjoined from mass picketing and further attempts at keeping some workers out of the plant. A petition, taken by company owner Joseph Ashkouti charged that the workers – who stayed off the job over a wage dispute –had mass picketed in such a manner and in such numbers as to obstruct traffic, preventing people from entering or leaving the plant including delivery people picking up or dropping off goods and materials at the plant.

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The Marietta School Board was reported in the Tuesday, Feb. 2, 1965 paper as having asked the Marietta City Council to call for a $850,000 bond issue to finance the construction of a gym and a new wing at the Marietta High School. The Journal learned that there was some discussion between the two groups over which project would be built first. The group reportedly agreed to build the gym first.

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A shabbily-dressed gunman was reported in the Thursday, Feb. 4, 1965 paper as having held up the Commercial Bank of Douglasville for an estimated $3,000.

Bank President Raymond Lloyd said that he had come to the window to wait on a customer while the regular teller was away. “The customer left and suddenly I was looking at the end of a pistol,” Lloyd said. He then filled a bag from the drawer at the window while the man leaned into the window still holding the gun on him.

Lloyd said that there were three or four customers in the bank at the time of the holdup, but that the gunman did not bother them. This was the second bank to be held up in the area within two weeks.

20 years ago …

In the Monday, Jan. 30, 1995 paper it was reported that the book, “I Want To Tell You,” by O.J. Simpson and journalist Lawrence Schiller was a hot seller in Cobb County with many bookstores having to reorder the book after selling out only a few days after its release.

The book was billed as Simpson’s response to the 300,000 letters he had received since being arrested and jailed for the June 1994 murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman to which he had repeatedly declared his innocence. The book hit Cobb’s shelves just as the murder trial began in Los Angeles. Simpson said the proceeds from the $17.95 book would help pay for his legal costs.

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The Terminator was reported in the Wednesday, Feb. 1, 1995 paper as having met the Speaker in Washington and Cobb County’s Rep. Newt Gingrich seemed to come out on top in a tug-of-war over public vs. private funding. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a film mega-star, former body-builder and recently the former Governor of California, came to Washington looking for federal money to expand the five-year-old Inner City Games to other cities across the country.

Schwarzenegger testified before the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education committees, as well as an appropriations subcommittee and other agencies hoping for funding for the Los Angeles-based games. After testifying, he paid a courtesy call to Gingrich and the two appeared briefly on national television.

Gingrich, however, did not agree to federal funding for the games, which were started by Vietnam veteran Danny Hernandez. While he nixed the idea of federal funding, Gingrich agreed to go to bat for private funding for a chapter of the games in Georgia.

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Damon Poirier is the Newsroom Administrator for the Marietta Daily Journal.

If you are interested in learning more about the stories that were presented in this week’s column, you can search the newspaper’s digitized microfilm archives online. NewsBank, which hosts the archives for the Marietta Daily Journal, charges a fee for retrieved articles and has various price packages available. If you have any trouble with your username, password or payment options, please contact NewsBank at mariettadaily@newsbank.com.

This week’s Time Capsule looks at robberies, Winston Churchill, the Goat Man, a meal contract, poor soil and O.J. Simpson.

100 years ago …

In the Friday, Jan. 29, 1915 edition of The Marietta Journal and Courier there was a story about the W.A. Florence Department Store giving away a diamond ring worth $100 along with some special bargains. The store, located between Schilling’s and the Fowler Bros. stores on the Marietta Square, offered dress goods, laces and embroideries, shoes, neckwear and hosiery.

50 years ago …

Two men were reported in the Sunday, Jan. 24, 1965 Marietta Daily Journal as being found locked in their trucks during the time of the robbery of the Austell Bank branch that was mentioned in last week’s column. Authorities, however, were unsure if the incidents were connected. No arrests had yet been made in connection with the robbery, which netted the robbers $9,596.

A sergeant with the Austell Police Department said he stopped at a service station near Hawthorne Plaza to get gas when he noticed a man with cut and bleeding hands. The Marietta man told the sergeant that he was in the back of his truck at the shopping center when someone pushed the doors shut and locked him inside. The man was then forced to take the doors apart to get out and in the process injured his hands. It was also reported that the Cobb County Police officer who found the abandoned getaway car near I-20 on Blairs Bridge Road also found a man locked in the back of his milk delivery truck in a similar fashion as the man at the shopping center.

A second story in that paper announced T. Edward Stephens, the chief executive officer of W.P. Stephens Lumber Company for 20 years and a life-long resident of Marietta, was honored as Cobb County’s “Citizen of the Year.” The award, given annually by the Marietta Daily Journal, was presented at the banquet of the Cobb County Chamber of Commerce by the newspaper’s publisher Brooks Smith.

In the Monday, Jan. 25, 1965 paper it was reported that a black man fled with money from the Liberty Loan Co. in downtown Marietta after holding a young teller at gunpoint and demanding she open the safe. It was the second armed robbery of a bank in the county within four days.

Also that day, there was a front page editorial and a story about the death of 90-year-old Sir Winston Churchill the day before. Churchill was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940-1945 and 1951-1955. He was widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the 20th century. The British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) stated that “he will be buried like a king” – the first commoner in all English history to be accorded that honor.

Chess McCartney, the famous grey-bearded “Goat Man” who roamed the nation’s highways with a ragged caravan of goats for companionship, was reported in the Tuesday, Jan. 26, 1965 paper as heading for the heart of Marietta. The 63-year-old vagabond and his herd of 32 goats camped for several nights beside the Four-Lane Highway, now known as U.S. Hwy. 41, at Due West Road in north Cobb where he stopped traffic and drew crowds. He was scheduled to start the eight-mile trek to Marietta that day, but because he could only travel four to five miles a day, locals expected him on Marietta Square in two days if he didn’t take a detour.

Another story in that edition reported a contract framed by the old Cobb County Advisory Board, under which Sheriff Kermit Sanders collected more than $200,000 in county funds for jail meals over the past eight years, was cancelled. Cobb Commission Chairman Ernest Barrett confirmed that the new county commissioners abolished the meal fees, although he said they found “nothing improper” in them. Under the verbal agreement contract with the advisory board, Sheriff Sanders provided the kitchen equipment and bore the expenses of furnishing food and preparing meals for the inmates at the county jail. In return, he received a flat fee of $1.50 a day for each prisoner.

20 years ago …

In the Sunday, Jan. 22, 1995 paper it was reported that five months after breaking ground, soil conditions described as “very, very, very poor” were wreaking havoc with the $40 million expansion of the Cobb County Jail – leading to extraordinary work and spending. Poor soil at the jail expansion site already had forced Cobb commissioners to approve 12 change orders totaling $666,523 in added spending for the project. The largest of these, $464,594 was said to be for “unforeseen, unsuitable” soil conditions. Maj. Don Bartlett said the soil at the site, which had a creek running through it, was “almost fill-type dirt where sediment has washed in over a period of years.” As a result, it wasn’t able to support the weight of the construction.

As jurors were set to begin hearing the case against football legend O.J. Simpson it was reported in the Monday, Jan. 23, 1995 paper that members of Cobb’s legal community were unable to ignore the massive media exposure surrounding the trial. Speculation on whether Simpson would be found guilty or acquitted of the killing of Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman, varied among the Cobb lawmakers. Many, however, agreed that evidence that the public had heard through the media appeared to be mounting against the famous defendant.

Damon Poirier is the Newsroom Administrator for the Marietta Daily Journal.

If you are interested in learning more about the stories that were presented in this week’s column, you can search the newspaper’s digitized microfilm archives online. NewsBank, which hosts the archives for the Marietta Daily Journal, charges a fee for retrieved articles and has various price packages available. If you have any trouble with your username, password or payment options, please contact NewsBank at mariettadaily@newsbank.com.

In the Friday, Jan. 22, 1915 edition of The Marietta Journal and Courier the entire front page was taken up by a clearance sale ad for The Hub Clothing Company in Marietta, which was then located at “No. 10 East Side Square – Two doors below the Court House.” Among the deals were men’s suits that were normally offered at $15, $20, $25 and $30 prices were being sold for $7.50, $9, $10 and $12.50 respectively.

A second page story in that edition reported that the Shriners won a lawsuit against Georgia blacks who styled themselves as members of “The Ancient Egyptian Arabic Order, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.” The outcome of the suit prohibited blacks from using the title and ordering them to dispose of pins, regalia, uniforms and other lodge accessories that they had equipped themselves with. Judge H.L. Patterson of the Blue Ridge Circuit Court granted the injunction which had been brought before the Fulton County Superior Court on Dec. 6, 1914 by Potentate Forrest Adair of the Yaarab Temple against Charles Faison, who was the “potentate” of the local black lodge.

50 years ago …

In the Sunday, Jan. 17, 1965 Marietta Daily Journal it was reported that snow and freezing weather hit Cobb County in a one-two punch bringing traffic to a near standstill on many highways and streets. All Cobb County roads were declared “extremely hazardous” for driving similar to the Snow-pocalypse that hit the State of Georgia at the end of January 2014. Snow began falling on the Friday night before the report and the severe weather kept police and wrecker services scrambling through that evening and all of the following day. Cobb County police estimated that officers answered over 60 wreck calls between 7:30 a.m. and noon that Saturday, while Marietta police had 12 by noon.

Some 4,000 Southern Bell customers out of Marietta’s “422” office were reported in the Monday, Jan. 18, 1965 paper as expecting to have improved service on the direct distance dialing system starting on Feb. 15, 1965. Bill Wilson, manager of Southern Bell’s Marietta office, reported that when one direct dialed a long distance number an operator had to get on the line and ask for the number being called. With the new system, there would be no operator intervention and a computer would record without interruption the dialing number, the number being called and the duration of the call for billing.

A second story in that paper reported a resolution aimed at preventing the City of Atlanta from expanding into Cobb County without a vote had been introduced by Cobb’s three state representatives. But, the proposal was expected to run into stiff opposition from at least one Fulton County legislator.

In the Tuesday, Jan. 19, 1965 paper it was reported that two dozen golden jonquils were wired to Lady Bird Johnson by the Smyrna Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber’s floral homage was prompted by Mrs. Johnson’s statement that her inaugural ball gown was going to be “jonquil yellow.”

Also that day, Lockheed was reported as telling 90 firms from across the U.S. and Canada that it intended to maintain wide-open sub-contracting competition until after it won the prime contract on the Air Force’s proposed C-5A giant airlifter program.

A state arson investigation was reported in the Wednesday, Jan. 20, 1965 paper as being called to probe the rubble left by a fire that swept through the Marietta Lumber Co. causing an estimated $100,000 in damages. Fair Oaks Fire Chief H.E. Davis said the fire traveled through the 200-foot warehouse and office building so fast that he felt an investigation was warranted. Over 30 firefighters from Fair Oaks, Marietta, Smyrna, Dobbins and the Lemon-Vinings districts fought the blaze which brought crowds of spectators to 1120 Atlanta Road and was seen as far away as Acworth. Eight pumper trucks were on the scene at one time. Paint cans in the office building were reported as having exploded during the incident adding “a Fourth of July tone to the fire.”

Two masked gunmen were reported in the Friday, Jan. 22, 1965 paper as having held up the branch of the Austell Bank, which was located between Austell and Mableton on Bankhead Highway. The exact amount stolen was unknown, but the bank reported that the robbers “couldn’t have gotten more than $16,000 as that was all that was in the bank at the time of the incident.” A bank employee said the gunmen came into the bank, herded the employees together and then emptied the cash drawers and safe. One man was reported to have been armed with a sawed-off shotgun, while the other had a pistol. The getaway car was a stolen 1965 dark blue Chevrolet that was found abandoned by Cobb County police on I-20 near Austell.

20 years ago …

In the Monday, Jan. 16, 1995 paper it was reported that Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut) warned on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that east Cobb Republican Newt Gingrich’s failure to abandon a book deal with a company owned by communications giant Robert Murdoch could cost him his speakership. Republicans, however, rejected Democrats’ criticism and their call for an outside prosecutor to investigate the deal as more political sniping at Rep. Gingrich.

Marietta’s three nude dancing clubs were reported in the Thursday, Jan. 19, 1965 paper as facing the possibility of losing their liquor licenses at the end of the year if a proposed city ordinance banning alcohol from businesses featuring adult entertainment was approved at a special City council meeting. Mayor Ansley Meaders and the six members of the council had all voiced support for the proposed ordinance, which would not allow alcohol to be served or consumed at adult entertainment clubs.

Damon Poirier is the Newsroom Administrator for the Marietta Daily Journal.

If you are interested in learning more about the stories that were presented in this week’s column, you can search the newspaper’s digitized microfilm archives online. NewsBank, which hosts the archives for the Marietta Daily Journal, charges a fee for retrieved articles and has various price packages available. If you have any trouble with your username, password or payment options, please contact NewsBank at mariettadaily@newsbank.com.

This week’s Time Capsule looks at smallpox, a fire, a convict escape, a beer inspector, Lockheed and the MDJ’s very own Bill Kinney.

100 years ago …

In the Friday, Jan. 15, 1915 edition of The Marietta Journal and Courier, there was a story about the City of Marietta having a meeting that declared a strict quarantine against Chattanooga, Tennessee, due to an outbreak of black smallpox. The black pox was a symptom of smallpox that was caused by bleeding under the skin, which made the skin appear to be charred or black.

Another story in that paper stated that Cobb County, unlike many counties across the state of Georgia, was free of hookworms – a parasite that lives in the small intestines. The most significant risk of a hookworm infection was anemia.

A third story reported the arrest of two black men by a special officer of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company which resulted in the recovery of a large “lot of goods” that had been stolen from freight cars in the Marietta yards. Cobb County Sheriff W.E. Swanson and the railroad officer found “meal, flour, syrup, all kinds of clothing, hats and sox [socks] in a dark corner of the Kennesaw Paper Mill” where the two men had hidden it. At two other places in the county it was reported that about $200 worth of shoes were also recovered.

50 years ago …

The Marietta City Council was reported in the Sunday, Jan. 10, 1965 Marietta Daily Journal as having adopted an ordinance that was expected to save the city $50,000 annually in drunk-driving fines. The ordinance allowed the city to continue trying DUI cases as long as the defendant waived the right to a jury trial. City officials had been told that state law prohibited municipal courts from hearing any state traffic offenses as long as a county-wide court such as the then-new Cobb County criminal-civil court existed.

In the Monday, Jan. 11, 1965 paper it was reported that a three-alarm fire threatened a whole Marietta neighborhood. Capt. Bartow Adair of the Marietta Fire Department said when firefighters arrived at the Standard Oil plant on Butler Street that the whole building was in flames and parts of the structure had already fallen. Adair also said that there were five 20,000 gallon fuel tanks within 15-20 feet of the building and another 100,000 gallons at building next door. Firefighters began immediately hosing down the storage tanks in an effort to keep them cool. Two firefighters were injured trying to keep the flames away from the tanks. Adair was also quoted as saying that “all off duty men were called in and that the Fullers Fire Department, Dobbins Air Force Base and the Fair Oaks Fire Department all lent aid.” Dobbins AFB’s foam truck was reported to have sprayed about 3,000 gallons of water and foam.

In another incident reported in that paper, the Powder Springs Fire Department had to rescue one of its own men, along with his wife and infant daughter, when the family was overcome by a natural gas leak from a defective gas heater.

Gov. Carl Sanders was reported in the Tuesday, Jan. 12, 1965 paper as having set out before the General Assembly a record $1.2 billion two-year budget including a $57 million increase for public schools. He called for a “Golden Era of Growth and Greatness.” The governor, to the surprise of many, also urged lawmakers to carry out their court mandate to reapportion the House and even offered help in the job – which many considered too hot for him to touch.

Also that day, it was reported that efforts to find an escaped Cobb County convict were thwarted when bloodhounds were unable to pick up the escapee’s trail. The convict escaped from an asphalt plant near Greers Chapel Road. Officials at the convict farm said the bloodhounds were unable to pick up the trail because of too many people at the scene and no one knew which way the convict had fled.

In the Wednesday, Jan. 13, 1965 paper it was reported that A.B. Hodnett, Cobb County’s beer inspector, was out of job after the county commission eliminated his post. Commission chairman Ernest Barrett confirmed the report that Hodnett had been removed as inspector and said that his duties would be turned over to the new county business licensing department.

A proposed $7 million “condominium” apartment project – in which tenants would purchase their own apartments – was reported as drawing fire from residents in the Mt. Bethel and Chattahoochee Plantation communities in the Thursday, Jan. 14, 1965 paper. Backers of the massive apartment plan sought a lowering of zoning restrictions in east Cobb at a county planning – zoning board hearing. The project was described as a “modern new concept in apartments” by an attorney for the Marett Investment Company, the firm proposing to build the units on 116 acres of land off Lower Roswell Road. The apartments, with 444 one-story units, was to be located in Mt. Bethel near Chattahoochee Plantation Estates.

The Slick Corporation was reported in the Friday, Jan. 16, 1965 paper as having announced in New York the purchase of two additional L-300 B Supper StarLifter fan-jet air freighters from Lockheed-Georgia Company at Marietta. Chairman Delof W. Rentzel said the air cargo line would exercise its option for the modern turbine-powered freight aircraft at a cost of approximately $16 million, with delivery scheduled in 1968.

A second story in that edition announced that the Cobb County Planning and Zoning Board had approved a special permit for the construction of a $100,000 “Barn Dinner Theater” in a residential section of Cobb County.

20 years ago …

In the Sunday, Jan. 8, 1995 paper it was reported that the Marietta Daily Journal presented its Citizen of the Year Award to Bill Kinney, the paper’s associate editor and “a Cobb County treasure,” according to MDJ publisher Otis A. Brumby Jr. It marked the first time in the 31-year history of the award that it had gone to a journalist, Brumby said, speaking to more than 1,000 business and community leaders at the annual Cobb Chamber of Commerce banquet at the Cobb Galleria Centre. Kinney, whose newspaper career then spanned 50 years, usually presented the award but at the event switched roles and became the recipient.

Damon Poirier is the Newsroom Administrator for the Marietta Daily Journal.

If you are interested in learning more about the stories that were presented in this week’s column, you can search the newspaper’s digitized microfilm archives online. NewsBank, which hosts the archives for the Marietta Daily Journal, charges a fee for retrieved articles and has various price packages available. If you have any trouble with your username, password or payment options, please contact NewsBank at mariettadaily@newsbank.com.

This week’s Time Capsule looks at Lockheed, a bull, a mayor’s car and Newt Gingrich.

100 years ago …

In the Friday, Jan. 8, 1915 edition of The Marietta Journal and Courier there was a story about a missing 18-year-old man who was last seen on Dec. 28. The young man was said to have come to Marietta to hear the police court trials of a group of people arrested on Christmas and then disappeared after leaving the courtroom.

On the front page of that edition, the First National Bank of Marietta ran a half-page ad with their semi-annual financial statement. The bank reported that deposits on Dec. 31, 1914 were $495,167.14 which was $31,347.37 more than the year before.

50 years ago …

In the Sunday, Jan. 3, 1965 Marietta Daily Journal it was reported that Lockheed-Georgia Company at Marietta was expected to fill a $6 million project definition contract for the Air Force’s C-5 A long-range, heavy logistic aircraft. The company was one of three in the nation chosen to do the development work on the plane.

Lockheed-Georgia was also reported that day as dickering with the Air Force for delivery of 18 more C-141 StarLifter cargo fan jets. The deal pushed total Air Force purchases to 150, and total cost to over $500 million.

New Cobb County Commissioner Chairman Ernest Barrett was reported in the Monday, Jan. 4, 1965 paper said that the county was hiring an efficiency expert to help unsnarl the county’s financial affairs. Barrett made the announcement as he and the four members of the new multiple commission officially went to work after a historic change over from the old single commissioner form of government. Barrett also said the county would employ the efficiency expert from the nationwide accounting firm of Ernst & Ernst.

The new Cobb County commission was reported on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 1965 that it took swift action over the embattled county courthouse by ordering a halt in construction and calling for an investigation of the financing. Commission Chairman Ernest Barrett said the work stopped as accountants began delving into the financial status of the new three building courthouse complex. Barrett declared that construction of the first of the three buildings, the judicial building, would not begin again until the final cost of the four-story structure was known.

A second story in that paper announced that a machinist from Powder Springs lassoed a charging bull in his back yard. The man tied the bull to a pecan tree and scoured the neighborhood of his Mayes Road home in an attempt to find the animal’s owner. During the bull’s rampage, a pine tree had been shredded to pieces, a bush had been uprooted and a backyard swing had been broken. The man also stated that he saw the bull sharpening its horns on the door of his cream-colored convertible.

Cobb County Superior Court Judge Albert Henderson dismissed a complaint charging the Cobb-Marietta Water Authority with “fraudulently” bypassing an apparent low bid for a new Lake Allatoona water treatment plant pipeline. The plaintiff in the suit, L.B. Foster Company of Pennsylvania, said it planned to appeal the ruling.

Another story in that edition reported that Marietta Mayor Howard Atherton’s Thunderbird, which had been stolen from behind City Hall, was recovered by the Atlanta Police Department. Ten people, including three juveniles, were held in connection to the theft of at least a dozen automobiles – including the mayor’s – across the Atlanta area. Each of the cars had been stolen because they left with their ignition keys in the vehicle.

Four members of the five-man Cobb County planning and zoning board were reported in the Friday, Jan. 8, 1965 paper as having been replaced by the new multiple county commission. The commissioners named four replacements, including Mableton realtor George Wilson who quit the planning-zoning board in June 1964 in a bitter dispute with then-Commissioner Herbert McCollum. David Kelly, the only member of the McCollum-appointed board who was retained, was selected as chairman.

Also that day it was reported that an announced cutback in the Air Force Reserve recovery squadrons throughout the nation would affect only 20 men at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta.

20 years ago …

In the Thursday, 5, 1994 paper it was reported that anticipation turned to excitement as Newt Gingrich took control of the House. More than 300 friends and supporters of the Republican congressman from east Cobb crammed into a small room in the basement of the Capitol to watch the historic moment on two large-screen televisions. The crowd, most of whom had traveled about 650 miles from Georgia to show their loyalty to Rep. Gingrich, watched as the man known simply as “Newt” became the most powerful congressman in America.

Damon Poirier is the Newsroom Administrator for the Marietta Daily Journal.

If you are interested in learning more about the stories that were presented in this week’s column, you can search the newspaper’s digitized microfilm archives online. NewsBank, which hosts the archives for the Marietta Daily Journal, charges a fee for retrieved articles and has various price packages available. If you have any trouble with your username, password or payment options, please contact NewsBank at mariettadaily@newsbank.com.

This week’s Time Capsule looks at a negligence lawsuit, a F8B Crusader, a jail break, Fred Tokars and Newt Gingrich.

100 years ago …

In the Friday, Jan. 1, 1915 edition of The Marietta Journal and Courier there was a story about William Wilson arriving in Marietta to fill the job left vacant by the death of Maj. John A. Commerford, the custodian of the Marietta National Cemetery whose death was reported November. Wilson came to Marietta from Mobile, Ala., and previously had been at the Brownsville, Texas cemetery. It was also reported that a Col. Donaldson of the U.S. Army came to Marietta from Governor’s Island, N.Y., to inspect the cemetery and found it “in first-class order.”

50 years ago …

In the Monday, Dec. 28, 1964 Marietta Daily Journal it was reported that Marietta’s postmaster Pierce E. Cody was retiring. Cody served as postmaster for 11 years and was a 35-year veteran of the postal service.

Also that day, the Atlanta Gas Light Co., which was being sued by the Atherton Drug Co. of Marietta following the tragic gas explosion on Halloween night 1963 that took seven lives and injured 22 people, counter charged that the blast was caused by the store’s “own negligence.” The gas company filed legal answers to Atherton’s $168,567 damage suit in Cobb Superior Court claiming that the drug company “could have avoided the occurrence of the explosion by the exercise of ordinary care.” Atherton Drugs contended in its suit filed in November that the gas main installed in front of the store in 1931 was defective. According to the drug store, the gas company knew that the line could corrode within 20-25 years.

A third story in that Monday paper reported that several members of the incoming Cobb County school board had indicated that bus transportation would be one of the biggest problems facing the county’s first elected school board. Eugene Housley said one of the problems that would be encountered was that many children, who lived within a mile and a half of school, would still have to be transported because the school they attend was located on heavily travelled roads with no sidewalks. Housley also pointed out that the state would not subsidize the county for any part of the cost of transporting children who lived within the one and a half mile limit.

Naval Air Station Atlanta in Marietta was reported in the Tuesday, Dec. 29, 1964 paper as having received the first F8B Crusader. It marked the beginning of the station’s third jet aircraft transition in three years. The all-weather fighter was replacing the F1E Fury jet that was at the time being flown by the station’s active duty and selected Naval and Marine Air Reserve pilots. Regarded as the “backbone of the Navy’s fighter arm,” the Crusader was the first plane to boost the national speed record higher than 1,000 miles an hour and the first to fly supersonic from the Pacific to the Atlantic – Los Angeles to New York.

A second story reported two prisoners escaped from a second story cell at the Cobb County jail after tying and gagging the turnkey, Marshall Owenby. Six other prisoners in the same cell made no attempt to leave. Owenby had gone into the cell to get a mop bucket when one of the men grabbed him by both shoulders and forced him further into the cell. The following day, Wednesday, Dec. 30, 1964, it was reported that about six hours after the escape one of the men was apprehended by Marietta Police as he attempted to repair a stolen car. Then, on Thursday, Dec. 31, 1964, it was reported that the second prisoner was captured in a house in Cherokee County by sheriff’s deputies and county policemen.

Also in that Thursday paper, it was reported that a gas truck driver unloading gasoline at the K-Mart service station decided to take 40 winks and when he woke up, discovered that he had lost 2,000-gallons of gas across the parking lot.

20 years ago …

In the Friday, Dec. 30, 1994 paper it was reported that Cobb Superior Court Judge Watson White paved the way for family members of Sara Tokars to testify about how her death has affected them during the sentencing phase of the upcoming death-penalty trial of Fred Tokars, if the slain east Cobb woman’s husband was found guilty of ordering her shotgun killing. Defense lawyers planned to appeal the ruling when the Georgia Supreme Court reviewed pre-trial issues in 1995. Judge White ruled during a brief hearing that “victim-impact” testimony would be allowed if Tokars faces a jury for sentencing.

Saying he didn’t want to detract from the GOP mission, Rep. Newt Gingrich was reported in the Saturday, Dec. 31, 1994 paper as having given up a $4.5 million book advance in favor of royalties generated by book sales. The next Speaker of the House had been catching flak from both sides of the aisle after signing the lucrative two-book deal with HarperCollins publishing house just before assuming the highest post in the House. The east Cobb Republican said he expected the criticism from Democrats but was surprised fellow Republicans, including his counterpart in the Senate, Bob Dole of Kansas, were questioning the deal.

Damon Poirier is the Newsroom Administrator for the Marietta Daily Journal.

If you are interested in learning more about the stories that were presented in this week’s column, you can search the newspaper’s digitized microfilm archives online. NewsBank, which hosts the archives for the Marietta Daily Journal, charges a fee for retrieved articles and has various price packages available. If you have any trouble with your username, password or payment options, please contact NewsBank at mariettadaily@newsbank.com.

This week’s Time Capsule looks at robberies, wrecks, an assault, McCollum Airport and handbills.

100 years ago …

In the Friday, Dec. 25, 1914 edition of The Marietta Journal and Courier there was a story about the night operator at the Kennesaw Depot and another railroad employee who were held up and robbed at gunpoint around 2 a.m. the Wednesday before. The robber was said to have escaped with a total of $25 from the two men and the railroad along with the operator’s watch.

A second story in that edition reported that two railroad car firemen, one from Kennesaw, were killed when the fast southbound W & A Railroad passenger train went down a 75-foot embankment near Emerson in Bartow County the weekend before. Several train cars crashed down the bank and “it was a miracle that a number of passengers were not killed,” however several passengers were badly injured.

50 years ago …

In the Monday, Dec. 21, 1964 Marietta Daily Journal reported that a Marietta girl narrowly escaped injury when her car became impaled by a steel beam sticking out of the back of a truck. The teenager was driving to work in Atlanta when a truck stopped suddenly in front of her and three feet of a steel beam punched through her windshield.

Also that day, an east Marietta robbery was reported. The homeowner told police that he answered his doorbell at 9:45 p.m. to find a man with a stocking over his face holding a gun. He was told to lie down on the floor and three more men entered the home. After a pillow case was thrown over his head, the victim’s wife was brought down from the upstairs and also tied up. The robbers then carried the man to the basement where he opened a safe for them which contained three sacks of coins full of collector’s items and four to five hundred silver dollars.

Consolidation of municipal and county police departments were reported in the Tuesday, Dec. 22, 1964 paper as being considered for the future in the face of possible loss of vitally-needed drunk driving fines by the county’s municipalities. Under state law, municipalities lose jurisdiction of state traffic offenses such as drunk driving when county misdemeanor courts are established like the new Cobb County Criminal and Civil Court – which was expected to open in January 1965. Some officials also talked about the possibility of passing local drunk driving ordinances in order to bypass the state law.

In the Wednesday, Dec. 23, 1964 paper it was reported that evidence from a Lansing, Ill., crime the week before was found locally by Cobb County policemen. A bloody shirt, a pair of pants, several suitcases and a file box were identified as the belongings of a man whose throat was cut “from ear to ear” in Lansing. Since the assault, two teenagers – one from Cartersville and one from Atlanta – who had been with the victim were picked up in Atlanta. The victim was found lying on the side of a street in Lansing at around 4 a.m., beaten with his throat cut, robbed of $25 and his personal papers. The man, who had been thrown out of his car and was still alive after the incident, was being treated for a severed windpipe at a hospital.

A controversial 30-year lease for a second fixed-base operator at the county’s McCollum Airport in Kennesaw was reported in the Thursday, Dec. 24, 1964 paper as being canceled by mutual agreement. County and airport officials also agreed to the appointment of a committee to operate the public-owned field and decided to “seriously investigate” the establishment of an airport authority. A furor was touched off when the Cobb County advisory board followed the recommendation of outgoing airport manager Joe Sandman and leased a section of the field to Mableton businessman W.E. Richardson.

20 years ago …

In its latest clean-city measure, the Smyrna City Council was reported in the Wednesday, Dec. 21, 1994 paper as having voted to prohibit advertising fliers from being left on windshields, utility poles and the doors of people who did not want them. Handbills hawking pizza delivery, carpet cleaning and other commercial products and services were no longer allowed to be placed under windshield wipers. However, fliers promoting free church events, political candidates, charitable cases or other non-commercial enterprises were still allowed.

Five pistol-wielding bandits were reported in the Friday, Dec. 23, 1994 paper as having held up the Barnes Hardware store – a well-known Mableton landmark where locals gathered for generations to talk politics. The bandits made off with 44 firearms and an undisclosed amount of cash after locking four employees in a small storage room. The youths lured store employees to different parts of the store, before producing handguns and forcing them to the rear of the building. None of the employees, who spent less than 20 minutes lying face down on the floor, were injured.

Also in that paper, it was reported that a longstanding road project designed to turn one of Smyrna’s busiest and most dangerous streets into a “grand boulevard” with smoother traffic flow was moving closer to reality. The widening of Spring-Concord Road called for a fifth, center turning lane to be added to Spring Road from Cobb Parkway west to Campbell Road. Construction work was expected to start in late summer 1995.

Damon Poirier is the Newsroom Administrator for the Marietta Daily Journal.

If you are interested in learning more about the stories that were presented in this week’s column, you can search the newspaper’s digitized microfilm archives online. NewsBank, which hosts the archives for the Marietta Daily Journal, charges a fee for retrieved articles and has various price packages available. If you have any trouble with your username, password or payment options, please contact NewsBank at mariettadaily@newsbank.com.

This week’s Time Capsule looks at a land deal, a dog pound, an asphalt explosion, a stolen car, pay phones and a toxic spill.

100 years ago …

In the Friday, Dec. 18, 1914 edition of The Marietta Journal and Courier there was a story about E.G. Gilbert, one of Marietta’s most enterprising merchants and businessmen, purchased the entire building occupied by the Gem Theatre and the Haverty Furniture Co. for $20,000. The building, located opposite the courthouse on Washington Avenue, was built just two years earlier and was the property of J.M. Cogburn – who took as partial payment the vacant lot at the corner of Waddell Street and Washington Avenue and a brick warehouse on Waddell, while the balance was paid in cash.

A second story in that edition reported that a movement was started to relieve the distress among the un-employed and needy families in Marietta “by systematically bestowing groceries and coal during the holidays and extreme weather.” James E. Anderson, John M. Warren and Dr. J.D. Malone were being considered for the distribution committee. Henry A. Ward agreed to start the movement’s fund with $25 and was followed with $1 donations by four others.

Another story reported that Drs. W.H. Perkinson and I.L. Blair were appointed surgeons for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Co. for Cobb County. The appointment was made by A.B. Bayless, the superintendent of the Railroad Company.

50 years ago …

In the Sunday, Dec. 13, 1964 paper it was reported that people were “barking” about the condition of the jointly operated city-county dog pound. Complaints had been registered about live animals being put in boxes with dead ones, about no one being on the premises to care for the animals and about the unpleasant odor around the pound.

A second story in that paper reported that only 46-percent of the 1964 City of Marietta taxes had been paid. A total of $367,363.59 had been collected, leaving $432,918.99 that still needed to be collected.

Starting on the front page of the Monday, Dec. 14, 1964 paper was the first of the “Witnesses to the Nativity,” a series of imaginative monologues by forerunners and witnesses to the birth of Jesus Christ. The holiday feature from the Los Angeles Times featured Isaiah the Prophet, Zacharias the Priest, Herod the King, Ezra the Trader, The Bethlehem Innkeeper, Simon the Stableboy, Gaius the Centurian, Simeon the Devout, A Bethlehem Shepherd and Balthasar the Wise Man.

Another story that day reported a 5,000-gallon asphalt storage tank blew up at the Cracker Asphalt Corp. plant in Douglasville injuring two workers. The explosion came when the men were transferring liquid asphalt from one tank to another. The cause of the blast was not immediately known. Fire units from Douglasville, Villa Rica, Austell and equipment from Dobbins Air Force Base in Marietta were rushed to the scene.

Commissioner Herbert McCollum and members of the Cobb-Marietta Water Authority were charged in a lawsuit with “fraudulently” and “unlawfully” bypassing an apparent low bid for a million-dollar pipeline contract. A Pennsylvania construction firm, the L.B. Foster Co., contended in the suit that the water authority unlawfully awarded a contract the week before to two Marietta companies. Foster alleged that the advertisements for bids were part of a “fraudulent scheme” to deceive bidders. Members of the water authority knew “full well the contract would not be awarded to the lowest bidder,” the firm claimed. McCollum, who served as the chairman of the authority, said when served with the suit that there was “no truth whatsoever” to the allegations.

Marietta Mayor Howard Atherton‘s yellow Thunderbird was reported in the Thursday, Dec. 17, 1964 paper as having been stolen from behind City Hall after he had left his keys in his car. Ironically, during the theft, Mayor Atherton was speaking to a gathering of city employees about a new Zero Defects program and told them” what it [the program] amounts to is stop and think.”

Another story that day reported that the Cobb county Advisory Board on the advice of McCollum Airport Manager Joe Sandman had leased a section the county-owned airport for 20 years to a private operator. Sandman, who planned to quit his post at the end of the month to enter the real estate business, said he wanted to bind the incoming multiple-seat commission to a second private operator at McCollum to avoid any possibility of a “monopoly.”

20 years ago …

In the Monday, Dec. 12, 1994 MDJ it was reported that some residents and business owners in north Marietta believed that pay phones had become a public nuisance and magnets for the city’s growing crack cocaine trade. In November 1994, acting for a group of local homeowners, Marietta Mayor Ansley Meaders convinced Southern Bell officials to fix four outdoor phones at a Chevron station and convenience store on the southwest corner of Allgood Road and Fairground Street so they would not accept incoming calls. According to Marietta police, because of its bank of phones, the service station had emerged in the last year as a hot spot for crack sales in the city, joining such long standing trouble zones as Roosevelt Circle and Franklin Road.

The Air Force was reported in the Friday, Dec. 16, 1994 paper as saying an old spill of more than 1,000-gallons of a possibly cancer-causing agent by employees of Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Co. might have contaminated groundwater beneath Lockheed and Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta. Officials at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio said the contamination is believed to have been caused by a spill of tricholoroethylene (TCE). The chemical was used to degrease airplane surfaces and was “a suspected carcinogen.” While the spill was thought to have spread toward South Cobb Drive, there was no threat to the county water system.

Damon Poirier is the Newsroom Administrator for the Marietta Daily Journal.

If you are interested in learning more about the stories that were presented in this week’s column, you can search the newspaper’s digitized microfilm archives online. NewsBank, which hosts the archives for the Marietta Daily Journal, charges a fee for retrieved articles and has various price packages available. If you have any trouble with your username, password or payment options, please contact NewsBank at mariettadaily@newsbank.com.

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